The Right Stuff (1983) 3 hrs 13 minutes is the only “new” movie I’ve seen with an intermission. Didn’t know it had one until it came up on the screen. I was only 19 but can’t say I objected to being able to stretch. I probably wasn’t as worried about a washroom as I would be now.
The attitudes expressed in this thread suggest why they’re not a thing though, despite films getting longer and longer.
Me, me, me! 
Here’s a little bit of intermission trivia from my memory. Several movies mentioned here, “How the West Was Won”, “Brothers Grimm” and more, were originally filmed in Cinerama, using the 3-camera/3-projector process. A single (large, heavy) reel for each projector held one hour’s worth, and they all had to be changed and synced carefully so all images on all projectors lined up to the exact same frame.
The Cinerama setup was expensive and space-consuming enough. In a conventional (35mm) theater – even the small, neighborhood ones – there were two 35mm projectors side-by-side. Each held about 20 minutes of film or less; while one was playing, the other could be loaded and made ready. Then at just the right time, the operator would pull a chain to switch over from one projector to the other without missing a beat. The films were produced with a few seconds of leeway between reels just for that purpose. Such a dual setup wasn’t practical with Cinerama, hence intermissions.
To all the above, add
The Great Race
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
The Battle of the Bulge
I’m pretty sure these had an intermission as well:
King of Kings
Beckett
A Man for All Seasons
The Lion in Winter
The break in the last one came right after Katharine Hepburn delivered the line “What family doesn’t have its little ups and downs?”
I believe The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far had intermissions as well.
Most people here seem to think that the interests and concerns of studios, producers, and theaters are essentially the same, and that if something (like intermissions) would benefit theaters, the studios would do it. This hasn’t been the case since the 1948 SCOTUS anti-trust ruling, aka the Paramount Decree, that prohibited studios from owning theaters.
The interests of producers and exhibitors (i.e., theaters) have been diverging steadily since then, and the gulf between them has never been wider. With the advent of television, VCRs, DVDs, giant flat-screen TVs, and streaming, the declining financial importance to the studios of (shrinking) theatrical release windows means that producers no longer give a fig for what theater operators need or want. It’s only more than a century of tradition, the preference of a few powerful auteurs, and the power of the Oscars, which still require a minimum theatrical release, that keeps most films opening somewhat exclusively in theaters, and not going straight to streaming.
So the reason that so few films now have intermissions has nothing to do with what the exhibitors want. They are the low men on the totem pole. (Is that still an acceptable expression?) There were no projection-related technical reasons for intermissions by the 1970s, and any conceivable such issues were completely eliminated by the advent of digital projection in 2005.
So the only reason for intermissions today is that a director who is powerful enough (think Spielberg, Scorsese, Cameron, Tarantino, Nolan) wants them. In the case of several recent long films, like Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (3:26), theaters that added intermissions at the request of customers were threatened with legal action by the studios for violating the terms of their contract.
However, according to this 2023 Variety article, movie run times have been increasing, and exhibitors are trying to persuade the studios to permit intermissions. Whether producers will go along is yet to be seen.
When I was in my 20s and 30s and went to movies with my dad, I snickered behind his back because he had to use the rest room before and after the movie! I’m 69 now, and laughing out of the other side of my mouth. I’m lucky if I can make it through a two-hour movie without a break.
Back when? Movie theaters in the US allowed smoking until the 1970s or '80s. Here’s a NYT item in 1976 that General Cinema Corp. was going to ban smoking in its 650 theaters (but still allow it in the lobbies and lounges).
This is why I PREFER watching movies at home. I can take an intermission.
well shit! that movie was really better with an intermission. It even had a fairly logical place for one.
That one was probably an artistic choice as an homage to old-timey movies.
I know that’s an issue for some men of our age. (My brother seems to be always looking for a restroom.) I wonder what’s more common. I’m almost 63 and typically go 4 to 8 hours between bathroom breaks. Even if I’m drinking beer, a 2 or 3 hour movie wouldn’t be an issue.
Those Marvel movies can be torture to sit through, if I want to see the mid- and end-credits scenes but really need to urinate after sitting there for two-plus hours.
I’ve learned I can’t buy a cola at the theater or I definitely won’t be able to go two hours.
Good memory! My DVD set of this movie has a side 1 / side 2 (or A/B) and I believe it is separated where the intermission was. Right at the part where John Glenn is having his flight.
There was another “long” movie I enjoyed, from 1987: The Last Emperor. Does anyone know if it had an intermission?
All great films, altho that last played fast and loose with the history.
Also great and mentioned here- The Lion in Winter, The Longest Day
Yep. Especially as the theaters just refuse to have to diet caffeine free soda.
Yep.
Gettysburg was shown with an intermission during its theatrical run in 1993 - a bit of kindness for a movie that clocked in at over four hours in length.
Definitely 2001, as someone mentioned. The intermission came right after we see HAL reading Poole and Bowman’s lips. So, it helps if movies with intermissions had some kind of cliffhanger built in just before to get the people to come back.
Now the 2001 Intermission was during the roadshow presentation, where I saw it the first few times. I don’t think they had it when I saw it in neighborhood theaters in NY, but that was over 55 years ago, so I might be wrong.
I don’t remember “A Man for All Seasons” having an intermission at the neighborhood theater where I saw it either.
RRR (2022) had an intermission. It’s just over 3 hours.
The recent theatrical re-release of Seven Samurai was shown with an intermission.
If you missed either of these in the theater, you missed something special.
I watched it at a friend’s house last year. And there was an intermission. Like, it said, “intermission” on the screen.
Hmm, it seems an intermission is the mark of a great film. Most of the time, anyway.
True. And the Blue Ray version I have also has the introductory music played in the theater as people found their seats. The soundtrack CD has it also. It comes from “Atmospheres.” The soundtrack LP didn’t, not enough space.
I don’t recall A Bridge Too Far having an intermission. As I note above The Right Stuff had one when I saw it a few years after A Bridge Too Far so I would have noticed / remembered (I hope).
Here are two lists of films with intermissions:
Here’s a thread about intermissions: